Page 124 of Architecti
They drop to the floor, soulless.Dead.I’m breathing hard.Lucy is white as a sheet.
“Lucy,” I say, reaching out to her.
But she turns and runs.
37
Architecti
It is an easy mistake to think that angels are good or incapable of evil.Just as it is an egregious error to assume that demonkind is evil or incapable of good.The gods made us in their image, and yet, we have free will.
The most heinous error of all is to assume that the gods are infallible.
We are as they are.And it is our free will that means we cansin, just as demons cansave.
Today, Interitus and I are eighteen.
Today, we will gaze upon the Mirror of Fate and witness a vision of our futures.
This ceremony is far less regal than the others.We are to enter the Room of Fates, locate the Mirror inside and see what it shows us.It sounds so simple, and yet it is the hardest rite of all.
What if we do not like the future it shows us?
What if our fate terrifies us?
Worse, what if it thrills us?
Interitus stands beside me, our hands entwined on the door handle.
“Are you ready?”she says to me.
“No.Are you?”I ask.
She smiles, a dark little thing made of shadows and blades.
“I don’t care what the mirror says.I already know my fate.”
“How can that be so?”I ask.
“Because I’ve decided it.No matter what the gods throw at me, I shall carve it from their bones if I must.”
“Interitus,” I scold.“You can’t talk like that.What if they materialise?What if they hear?”
“I think you’re missing the point, dear sister.”
I frown at her, our hands twisting the knob.
“I.Don’t.Care,” she whispers.
For eighteen years, I have tried with all my celestial being to love my sister, and I do.It has always been us, together, with our parents gone much of the time doing what celestials must do.This is the way with angels—we are a community, raising children together.
When I felt alone, she was there.
When I felt afraid, or sad, or jealous, she was there.
But the thing I didn’t like to admit, is that sometimes she was the reason I was afraid.
We step in to the Room of Fates and stand before the mirror just as millions of angels have before us.This mirror has always existed.
